Author Topic: Whats more important, CPU Speed or amount of RAM? (Read 4623 times)

Hoagie_one · « **on:** June 10, 2003, 02:31:05 pm »

Got a working 333 k6 that I'm gonna put in a mini-cab im building. Its gonna have 512 ram though. Id like to be able to run a few of the street fighters and some neo geo games.

What do you guys think?

Richy · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2003, 02:43:42 pm »

I have 310mb ram and 300mhz. Lots of games don't run and only a few are better since i added an extra 256. I'm planning on upgrading the processor to run neogeo games. Does anyone know what's the max you can upgrade a pII?

Hoagie_one · « **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2003, 02:52:51 pm »

I t hought I remember being able to play Samuria showdown 4 with a 300 and 96 MB ram when i had an old computer of mine. of course it took 10 minutes to load and i was playing it with neo rage x, not mame.

bionicbadger · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2003, 03:01:13 pm »

I have a PII 300 with 256MB and can play the street fighter games fine, some of the neo-geos are slow, but most are playable.

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2003, 03:03:49 pm »

Quote from: Hoagie_one on June 10, 2003, 02:31:05 pm

Got a working 333 k6 that I'm gonna put in a mini-cab im building. Its gonna have 512 ram though. Id like to be able to run a few of the street fighters and some neo geo games.

What do you guys think?

I'm using a Pentium 200MMX with 160M of ram. Upgrading it from 48M of Ram didn't make much difference in MAME. I think processor speed is more important.

Apollo · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2003, 04:45:08 pm »

Processor speed is the key and maybe cache size?
An 800GHz CPU with only 128MB RAM will rip through most games ( unless you are running XP then you really need 256MB ).
Don't quote me on the cache size thing though coz I don't know **** about it really.

Amra · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2003, 05:25:43 pm »

You are talking about two entirely different problems there...

There will always be an argument between RAM and CPU, but there really shouldnt be... They do different things, and thus are equally important in their own respects.

The RAM is like a room, where a person standing in the middle, can reach everything in the entire room, form one spot. Since you can reach everything in the room, you can do everything very quickly. But, what if the thing your working on, is larger then the room... Then you need to keep some in the room, and some outside the room (on the HDD) and every time you need a part that isnt in the room, you need to go out and get that other part (access the HDD). Now, while your in that room, the speed that you can grab everything would be your Processing Power (CPU Speed), but the Bigger the Room, the more things you can do at once, but no matter how big the room is, you can only do so many things at once (thus the debate between RAM and CPU). The Bright side of this room, is the bigger the room (the more ram) the bigger the doors, the bigger the doors, the faster you can throw things into the room (i.e Load time). So, with a big room and big doors (Lots of Ram) you can load a lot of things, and load them faster too ( loading times ). But like I said, no matter how big the room, you can still only do but so much at a time, you may be able to load things faster, and if you dont have to leave the room to get other parts, then you have less lag time (i.e. You can stay on what you are doing, and not access the HDD, slowing the program down). So, yeah having a bigger room is great, but it does you absolutely no good if you can only work but so fast... Thus the only good combination is more Processing Speed (CPU Speed) AND more Ram, this way you can not only load the stuff fast and do the work fast as well.

Now, that is a very simplified explination, but it holds true quite well, your RAM is nothing but a room, where things can be done a lot faster, the CPU is how fast those things can be done while in that room, and HDD is where all the stuff if stored when not in that room.

Hopefully this can/will help some people understand the Copmuter Process a little better...

Justin · « **Reply #7 on:** June 10, 2003, 10:01:23 pm »

I built a FULL computer @ 1.8 Ghz for only $265 shipped. I'm sure youcan spend a fraction of that to upgrade to a faster CPU on your current computer. 256 MB Ram is more than enough for MAME...

jakejake28 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 11, 2003, 01:03:24 am »

hey justin, where'd you find that? i can find similiar deals in town, all these small-town cp bussinesses run by resident geeks. sounds like a deal. maybe i could upgrade to a 3 ghz for cheaper...

traknfieldSUPAstar · « **Reply #9 on:** June 11, 2003, 03:13:38 am »

Quote from: Richy on June 10, 2003, 02:43:42 pm

I have 310mb ram and 300mhz. Lots of games don't run and only a few are better since i added an extra 256. I'm planning on upgrading the processor to run neogeo games. Does anyone know what's the max you can upgrade a pII?

450 mhz was the fastest pII ever made (w/o oc'ing it).. but good luck finding one... they're pretty rare considering intel made a PIII with the same clock speed... you'd probably do better upgrading to a newer cpu/motherboard...

Carsten Carlos · « **Reply #10 on:** June 11, 2003, 03:43:06 am »

Quote

450 mhz was the fastest pII ever made

Most P2-motherboards can also take a P3 - have a look at your motherboards-website. However, you can't use a coppermine in most cases as they need different voltages.

If your board is slot1 and you can set the multiplicator to e.g. 8 for 800MHz, you might get a cheap adapter to fit Coppermine-P3's like a P3-800 in this small housing (have forgotten the name).

On my P2-Board I drive a P3-800 for years now and it works perfectly this way - and it's a) very much faster then the P2 b) needs low current and produces less heat

raist0069 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2003, 04:19:13 am »

Quote from: Apollo on June 10, 2003, 04:45:08 pm

An 800GHz CPU with only 128MB RAM will rip through most game

Wow, thats one fast cpu

skirge66 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2003, 07:22:16 am »

I would go for the later model pIII's from the wilamatte line 7-800mhz( replaced coppermine in the mainstream)...they should be very cheap, still plenty available, it's what's being loaded into x-boxes should be more than powerful enough

Justin · « **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2003, 07:35:35 am »

Quote from: jakejake28 on June 11, 2003, 01:03:24 am

hey justin, where'd you find that? i can find similiar deals in town, all these small-town cp bussinesses run by resident geeks. sounds like a deal. maybe i could upgrade to a 3 ghz for cheaper...

I bought all components at dealsonic.com they had the best prices when I checked through pricewatch.com

Allways go to pricewatch before purchasing any computer parts...

Lilwolf · « **Reply #14 on:** June 11, 2003, 07:54:58 am »

btw, there is a few mame games that 256mg isn't enough isnt there? I thought one required 300mg of memory.

memory is SUPER cheap... just don't buy any on such an old computer (because you can't use it later).

Also, when looking for a motherboard. Stry to stay away from onboard video. Really sucks... but this will add about 50 bucks to the system. The super cheap boards usually have a super crap video card on them, but you cant disable them.

But processor speed is king for emulation..... As long as you have enought memory... extra memory doesn't do anything but allow a game to be loaded...

Hoagie_one · « **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2003, 08:47:13 am »

i have a good machine for the big cab im building. The 333 is for this counter top mini cab im building

rampy · « **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2003, 10:11:48 am »

Quote from: Justin on June 11, 2003, 07:35:35 am

Quote from: jakejake28 on June 11, 2003, 01:03:24 am
hey justin, where'd you find that? i can find similiar deals in town, all these small-town cp bussinesses run by resident geeks. sounds like a deal. maybe i could upgrade to a 3 ghz for cheaper...

I bought all components at dealsonic.com they had the best prices when I checked through pricewatch.com

Allways go to pricewatch before purchasing any computer parts...

And ALWAYS go to http://www.resellerratings.com/ to see if the cheapest guy on pricewatch is a scammer/bait and switcher AFTER checking pricewatch prices.

i.e. do your homework =P (else don't come crying to me when the cheapest guy sells you a DOA chip/mobo and won't return your calls asking for an RMA)

Rampy

Mike · « **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2003, 11:09:07 am »

Quote from: Richy on June 10, 2003, 02:43:42 pm

I have 310mb ram and 300mhz. Lots of games don't run and only a few are better since i added an extra 256. I'm planning on upgrading the processor to run neogeo games. Does anyone know what's the max you can upgrade a pII?

I have my old Abit BH6 mobo which is a P2 mobo running a 1.1GHZ celeron now. You may be able to stick one in yours too. First you need a 440BX motherboard (not bx-2) and it can't be by intel. It must be like asus, gigabyte, abit, or MSI someone who makes boards you can overclock. Then you have to upgrade the bios to the most recent one, i think it's number 17, it's been a while since i did it. Then you need to get a slocket adapter for an FCPGA chip not the PGA slocket adapter that won't work. Then you just need the processor. I think you can put all the way up to a 1.4GHZ celeron in there. You can always take the easy route though and buy the slocket with processor from powerleap(www.powerleap.com). They lowered some of thier prices you can get a celeron 1ghz with slocket adapter for $100 from them. Probably cost you $60 if you bought the parts seperately off pricewatch.

Malachai · « **Reply #18 on:** June 11, 2003, 05:06:27 pm »

Quote from: raist0069 on June 11, 2003, 04:19:13 am

Quote from: Apollo on June 10, 2003, 04:45:08 pm
An 800GHz CPU with only 128MB RAM will rip through most game

Wow, thats one fast cpu

Good eye. I read right past that...lol

spectre · « **Reply #19 on:** June 11, 2003, 05:34:11 pm »

HAAAAAAA i'd love that processor! haha

IceCold · « **Reply #20 on:** June 11, 2003, 08:55:05 pm »

I may be mistaken, but I remember playing Neo Geo games full speed on my Pentium 233mhz with 32mb of ram and onboard video, a few years ago on NeoRageX...

although I only played a few of the games though(not really any of the better graphics/newer ones)

Apollo · « **Reply #21 on:** June 11, 2003, 09:17:15 pm »

Quote from: Malachai on June 11, 2003, 05:06:27 pm

Quote from: raist0069 on June 11, 2003, 04:19:13 am
Quote from: Apollo on June 10, 2003, 04:45:08 pm
An 800GHz CPU with only 128MB RAM will rip through most game

Wow, thats one fast cpu

Good eye. I read right past that...lol

Yes, well done, sorry about that lol. 800GHz that is one fast processor! He he. I reckon I could get Ultimate Mortal Kombat to run pretty good with that! What do you reckon

TalkingOctopus · « **Reply #22 on:** June 11, 2003, 09:52:37 pm »

www.newegg.com has lots of good deals and is reliable.

spectre · « **Reply #23 on:** June 11, 2003, 10:04:43 pm »

deals on what? any why should I take your word when your entire point is to generate sales... hahaha juss playin... LOL

Dexter · « **Reply #24 on:** June 12, 2003, 08:01:10 am »

I just got rid of a cab with a celeron 333 in it with 128MB of ram and a 4mb ATI xpert card, it ran almost all the Neo-Geo and fighters at a reasonable speed. I used the fastvid program to speed up the graphics end of things.

My dev machine for the new cb I'm building is a pentium ii 350 (100mhz fsb) and is adequate as well for the moment.

Be careful of overclocking unless you're minicab is going to have SERIOUS cooling/ventilation!

Dexter

paigeoliver · « **Reply #25 on:** June 12, 2003, 08:05:59 am »

Quote from: Hoagie_one on June 10, 2003, 02:31:05 pm

Got a working 333 k6 that I'm gonna put in a mini-cab im building. Its gonna have 512 ram though. Id like to be able to run a few of the street fighters and some neo geo games.

What do you guys think?

I think you should try to trade 256 MB of that Ram for a K6-2 500 or 550. That combination will run a whole lot better than the 333 processor with about 300 MB of ram that will never get accessed.

Your Super 7 motherboard will most likely do 500, some go higher (some much higher), and those processors are really cheap now.

armad1ll0 · « **Reply #26 on:** June 12, 2003, 03:16:00 pm »

For P2 and P3 computers with Slot 1 Processors, there's an easy upgrade.
I had a Dell P3 550 that I upgraded to a Celeron 1.4 ghz. These processors are P4 based and are .13 micron. It's very fast and I love it for my ArcadePC

It only cost me $150 and some are less on ebay.
Look for a powerleap adaptor.

www.powerleap.com

JODY · « **Reply #27 on:** June 12, 2003, 04:51:26 pm »

Neither. Gotta have both. It is important to realize when upgrading RAM that if you're running an older version of Windows (e.g. 95, 98) that too much will slow down the machine. PC Mag or some other computer mag did tests and found the optimum memory under 98 was just over 256MB so when I put memory in my 98 machines I stopped at 256MB. XP doesn't have that problem. Can't remember about the OS versions in between. I've got 2 Pentium II 450s and they'll run NeoGeo stuff fine and most of the old games but stuff like Bust a Move Again and Marvel versus Capcom show major frame skipping. If I was going to upgrade the CPU I'd go with a new motherboard too and get over 1Ghz. AMD Athlons are cheap.
Also, a friend of mine got a new Gateway Pentium 4 with integrated video and found that Area 51 was very slow. He upgraded his video card to a ATI and got great performance. Integrated video uses regular RAM and can slow things down substantially.


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